Singapore Arts Festival.

Overview of Chosen Festival
Singapore Arts Festival is an annual arts festival in Singapore organised by the National Arts Council celebrating cultural diversity and artistic innovation. Usually held in the mid-year, the festival showcases the different work of arts incorporating dance, music, theatre and visual arts. Started back in 1977, the festival celebrates the local arts activities of Singapore's diverse communities showcasing works of only local artists. Over the last three decades, the Festival has played a symbiotic and catalytic role in the development of the artistic and cultural life of Singapore. Through the festival, it then brought the influence of arts to the local residents. Now, the festival attracts more people and has then includes works of renowned artists both locally and internationally. In addition, the Singapore Arts Festival is now one of Asia’s best leading festivals. The Singapore Arts Festival also championed and co-founded the Association of Asian Performing Arts Festivals in 2004, and now being the chair-country overseeing a membership of 30 organisations in the Asia, Europe, America, Australia and New Zealand.

Singapore Arts Festival Opening Ceremony
The Singapore Art Festival Opening Ceremony was held in the Marina Barrage on 15-17 May 2009. During the opening ceremony Helios II was staged. It showed the surrealist evocation of the mythological tale of the creation of the sun god, Helios. In the show there are giant insect-like robot moving to the beats of the sound, performers walking with stilts and also doing acrobatic acts. The Marina Barrage was lightly lit with lights from the performance. Furthermore, the performance was brought to a beautiful end with the display of fireworks.

Comparison of Marketing Strategy
A similar event to the Singapore Arts Festival would be the Edinburgh Arts Festival. Edinburgh Arts Festival is an annual visual arts festival that presents works by international and Scottish artists in a wide variety of settings. The festival was first held in 1947 and since then showcasing works of many renowned artists such as the French artists, Bonnard and Vuillard in 1948, a retrospective of the three Scottish Colourists, Peploe, Cadell and Hunter in 1949, and Rembrandt in 1950.

The comparison of the two festivals marketing strategy would be as follows using the 8 ‘P’s’ in Marketing Event:
Product
Product is the main thing that would attract people to the event. As for both festivals, arts would be the main product. The showcases of arts would then attract people to the festival. However, The Singapore Arts Festival showcases arts of different types including dance, theatre, music and visual arts whereas the Edinburgh Arts Festival only showcases visual arts. Thus the Singapore Arts Festival has more variety and would attract more people with different interests in arts whereas the Edinburgh Arts Festival would only attract those interested in visual arts.

Place
Places where the events are held or even where the tickets are first being sold or given out plays a huge role in the whole experience of the event to the customers. Thus, places chosen must be accessible, has a nice infrastructure and design. As for the Singapore Arts Festivals, the shows are located in nice and furnished places such as the Esplanade, Marina Barrage and Dome in Marina Square. As for the Edinburgh Arts Festival, the galleries used to display the visual arts are galleries such as the National Galleries of Scotland, streets and schools such as the Edinburgh College of Arts. The places used plays an important role in the whole experience of the event, thus both cities decides to use places that are easily accessed and known to the residents.

Programming
The programmes programmed for the festival is a marketing decision to create target benefits. A festival or an event should ensure programmes that can cater to the needs of their target markets. The Singapore Arts festival had many different types of programmes covering dance, theatre, music and visual arts and this would then attract people of different arts interests. The programmes are also spread out within the month and listed in the programmes list in the official website, booklets and brochures. This would enable the targeted market to pre-book their dates to watch the performances. The Edinburgh Arts Festival however only had visual arts showcase in their programmes list but even so they had different types of visual art from different artists that would attract different types of people.

People
People refers to the interaction between the customers and the staffs and setting as the hospitality the customers received plays a huge role in shaping the experience the customer would get. For both festivals, a large number of manpower would be needed to run the whole festival smoothly. Volunteers would most like be needed to help ensure the running of the festival. For the Singapore Arts Festival, volunteers are used for ushering, order maintenance and many more. For example during the opening in Marina Barrage the volunteers help usher the people who came to the show and gave out brochures and booklets of the Singapore Arts Festival, there are also volunteers to maintain order of the people waiting for the shuttle buses and they do so with a smile. They are the frontline people who would then shape the experience of the whole event.

Partnerships
Partnership is working with other agencies who give funds to make the event a more successful one. With partnership, prices and product of the event would be modified to be made more attractive. The Singapore Arts Festivals partners with Channel 5, OKTO, Coca-Cola Light, Singapore Tourism Board, Singapore Turf Club, Shaw Foundation and The University of Western Australia. The Edinburgh Arts Festival has partners in the media such as EDFEST.TV and The Skinny and also other funders such as Scottish Arts Council, Edinbvrgh and The Scottish Government. With these partners, its helps to run the whole festival and also promote the festival through the TV stations and others for example the free coca-cola light that were given out during some performances and the opening ceremony of the Singapore Arts Festival.

Promotions
Promotion refers to the full range of “communication mix” which includes advertising, public relations, sales promotions and personal selling. The Singapore Arts Festival promotes the event through the official website and also the world’s event guide website, booklets/brochures that were given out and even placed in shops such as LEFTFOOT in The Cathay, banners alongside streets from The National Arts Museum till around Bras Basah Road where it is a place for arts, bus stops posters and also not forgetting TV commercials. Discounts were also given to customers not only when buying the tickets but also at various places such as The Heeren, DOME, and Marina Mandarin Singapore. The Edinburgh Arts Festival promotes their festival also through their official website and the Edinburgh festival website, and also through the media.

Packaging & Distribution
Packaging is what the event has to offer other than the main event and the bundle the customers can take prior to the event. Distribution is the various types of intermediaries used. Destinations can package events with other attractions and services, or events can be offer their own. The Singapore Arts Festival locates their shows most in the Esplanade which is an attraction itself. It is also near to the Singapore Flyer. Distribution channels used are through SISTIC and tour agencies for other countries. The Edinburgh Arts Festival locates their works at well known galleries such the National Galleries of Scotland which then already attracts people to it.

Price
The prices of the events for both festivals ranges. For The Singapore Arts Festivals, some of the shows are priced quite high but that are different offers such as students and arts festival members special. There are also shows that have free admission such as the Flipside shows. The Edinburgh Arts Festivals events are mostly of free admission but there are also a few that are priced but at only a low cost.

Best Practices
Best practices of the Singapore Arts Festivals would be the opening ceremony itself. By staging Helios II in the opening ceremony and it being a free admission, it was an eye opener for both the arts lover and non-lover. The show then attracts people to the festival itself and would want them to watch the other available events. Also the free shows also would attract people to the festival.

Also, by having the Arts Fest Club membership, and offering discounts for it and students, it would attract more people to the festival. In addition, by putting banners in the areas where arts lies, it would then make the arts festival more known to all those who are interested in arts showcases.
Furthermore, by having the different types of arts showcases unlike the Edinburgh Arts Festival, it is also a good thing as it spreads into the interests of different people.

Stakeholders
The stakeholders in The Singapore Arts Festival would be the following:
· Host Organisation - National Arts Council
· Host Community - Singapore
· Sponsors - Singapore Tourism Board
- Coca-Cola Light
- Shaw Foundation
- Singapore Turf Club
- PSB Academy
- WingTai Asia
- PUB
- Suntec Singapore
- Raffles City
- Hong Leong Foundation
- Urban Redevelopment Authority
- SMRT
- Vivo City
- Lee Foundation
- Marina Mandarin Singapore
- Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry
- Starhub Cable Vision
- Yahoo!
· Media - Channel 5
- OKTO

Main Purpose
The main purpose of the Singapore Arts Festival is to expose arts more to Singaporeans. Through the festival, more Singaporeans would be more aware of arts and then would be the rise of interest in Arts. It is also to instil arts in Singaporean. Through the festival, the latter could be achieved. The festivals also show that arts are not only catered to the rich but for the enjoyment of each and every living.

Tourism Benefits
With the Singapore Arts Festival happening, this would attract many tourists to Singapore to attend the festival itself and this can generate tourism receipts when they spend during their stay. Also, the performers and their family members that flew in to Singapore to perform support their family member respectively at the same time also generate tourism receipts. The performers may take their time to walk around Singapore and then spend their money in accommodation, attractions, food & beverage. All of this creates revenue. This would then boost the local economy.

Conclusion
In conclusion, the Singapore Arts Festival 2009 is yet another successful event, the same as the past three decades. It has managed to attract people from Singapore as well as from overseas. The event would definitely sustain in the following years and now I can barely wait for the next Singapore Arts Festival in 2010.